Omega*
11-05-2008, 06:58 AM
PC BETA analysis, thoughts, and suggestions:
I've had time to adequately take the beta in now. I realize that there will be some fixes in the first retail patch, but I will include everything I have experienced thus far. I shall start with some of the good qualities I have observed.
POSITIVES:
► Performance:
Runs pretty smooth on my machine. I only have a 7600GT, 2 GB RAM, Win XP, and AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 3800+ processor. Seems well optimized.
► Graphics:
Levels are full of detail and nice textures. Foliage and other entities really help flesh out the environment of the maps. Player models have enough variation in equipment and appearance to keep things interesting.
► Map design:
I think the levels were well planned. All 3 maps play S&D fairly well, a gametype that can sometimes challenge the layout.
I saw video today of Outskirts and I must say that map looks like it's going to be a blast. Not as corridor driven as most CoD4 maps. I think this might be symptomatic of some of the spawning problems with the maps being more open?
► FX and animation:
Quality job in this category. Water animation looks wonderful, explosions are believable and visually eye-catching. Tank rounds, grenades, bombs, etc. all make the experience a little more immersive. I've heard some complain about the model animations, but I think for the most part this department has been just fine. The gore coupled with flying body parts has been very well done. Adds an extra dimension to the battlefield and gives the game a visceral, bloody edge.
Playing S&D earlier, I had a chance to spectate some of the animation in action and I think they paid attention to some of the finer details. Death animations are very fluid and the overall movement, like running, going prone, and climbing ladders is more than satisfactory. Seems to me the total number of animations are up over previous CoD's, giving the models more variation and randomness. Commendable work on the dogs as they turned out very well.
In the end, everything from incoming artillery shells and player animation calling it in, to tanks rolling, fires burning, flags waving, and planting a bomb looks outstanding, and I personally was really pleased in this area of the game.
► Sound:
This aspect of the game has its high and lows, but I'll concentrate on the good qualities at this point, and what it does well.
The sound occlusion has huge potential. The battlefield is very alive with distant grenades going off and far away gun fire lathering the air. Shooting a gun and hearing another player shooting the same gun sounds quite different, which holds some truth when real life counterparts do the same. Overall, the sound occlusion really adds depth to the game and makes for an intriguing environment, but there is some problems to sort out as I'll try to get to in a bit. Battle chatter is fantastic and is everything from downright hilarious, to informative, to adding an extra layer of ambiance to the gameplay. I would agree, however, with those who say that it is giving away a player's position. I think battle chatter in CoD4 was only heard by members of the same team, so to keep a team member abreast of one's actions while not alarming enemy players.
Another very impressive aspect is the body piercing sound of some explosions. A bazooka smashing up against a wall, a grenade going off on a sandy beach, a tank round blasting the earth or another object all sound great. Bullets sound exceptional bouncing off material types like metal and wood. Certain surface sounds such as sand and the creaking of wood boards as you traverse them are a nice touch. The swishing disturbance of water is up to par too. Some of the gun sounds are excellent (firing and reloading), but I do have some issues that I will later elaborate on.
Ambient sounds are well done and so are other miscellaneous sounds such as barking dogs and artillery shelling. My evaluation is the sound execution exceeded my expectations in some areas, but needs tweaked in other instances.
► Features:
While there still may be more features in the retail version, I did appreciate some of the server options included in the beta. Having the ability to disable perks and killstreaks while still maintaining ranked status was vital. Major kudos to the development team there.
While I have seen some shrug their shoulders at the notion of a friends feature, I find it to be quite convenient and useful. Sometimes it's nice to have the option to use an integrated feature rather than a 3rd party application like Xfire all the time.
The extended stats encompassing nemesis and kill / death margin, streak, recon planes called etc. is a terrific addition.
Squad system. Good idea to implement into CoD. Makes pubs more tactical when playing with a few friends in a large server and will probably enrich competitive play where teams can split up and follow commands and waypoints.
► Misc:
Menus and fonts are cleaner looking and easier on the eyes than that of CoD4. Menu background flows better with the overall appearance. Just a quick observation on something as seemingly insignificant as a loadscreen, the artwork on the loading screens is the best of any CoD title to date.
Spectate mode is awesome. While waiting to respawn in S&D, I really enjoyed the option to watch team members in 3rd person or 1st person. The 3rd person brought me back to the days of MOHAA. It makes sitting and watching much more entertaining, and it's cool being able to rotate around on the center view axis. The player models actually putting their secondary or unused weapon on their back and reaching back to grab it is cool to see.
Tabun gas is sweet, trying to see through the brief vapor of gas emitted and if you happen to run through it the blurred, washed out saturation effect is nice.
Flares are useful at times and are a good addition to the arsenal.
The diversity in weaponry (and we don't have access to them all yet) at your disposal is a definite plus, some of the weapons are really fun to use.
Gameplay is solid, especially certain gametypes, and could be even better if spawn logic can be tweaked. I haven't messed around with tanks extensively but from what time I have spent with them they seem to be effective and add an interesting element to the gameplay.
NEGATIVES:
► Iron Sights:
I think some of the weapon's iron sights are too small, especially those of the rifles. The Mosin-Nagant sight is diminutive, needle thin, and the apex of the tip too short. Feel similar about the M1 Garand. Razor thin and hard to distinguish the iron sights from the background on a map like Makin.
► Balance & Recoil:
Some of this has been covered ad nauseum, but since this was my first personal experience with the weapons I would like to reinforce a few points. Non-scoped bolt-action rifles are definitely underpowered in the current PC beta stage. The damage in hardcore is where the rifles have a more even playing field but I'm happy to hear that some "tuning" will probably be done for the first retail patch so the normal mode of the game will make the non-scoped rifles a more viable option.
I was using the Mosin the other night, defending the bomb on Roundhouse and had two enemies at mid-range. I hit one enemy once, followed up by another immediate hit on the same player (obviously both shots were not very accurate but...) and he didn't drop. The third shot nailed the other foe and didn't kill him. Needless to say by then I was toast, but it was very frustrating to not get a kill out of that situation.
With all these automatics having apertures and telescopic sights, I don't think tweaking the non-scoped rifles is going to significantly tip the balance of power much, except bring them back to the rest of the field. When you have guns like the STG44 that have little recoil and powerful SMG's like the Thompson, a rifle enthusiast will still need to make use of his limited fire rate and make precise skill shots.
Some of the weapons do appear to have some healthy recoil though.
► Spawn Logic:
While the spawn system itself might be well and good, there is something fundamentally wrong with the spawning on these maps. Whether it's the spawn points themselves or something else entirely, this is one of my biggest gripes about the beta thus far. It ruins gametypes like TDM and CTF for me because instead of defending an area or charging a stronghold I am constantly doing circles to check and see if the opposing team has started spawning behind me or all around me.
When I played S&D for a little bit, it showed me that the core game was indeed pretty good and the gameplay was enjoyable once I felt part of a team, rather than scurrying around and feeling like every round was a frantic free-for-all battle.
The spawning in CoD4 arguably had its problems, but it didn't suffer from some of the problems the WaW beta apparently does. I don't know if a change was made to try and counter spawn killing (which I never found to be a big problem in CoD4 anyway) but something has to be done to alter its current state. Like I said, it blurs the meaning of many gametypes into playing like a free-for-all match.
► Sound:
Another hot-topic in WaW is the sound.
First off, the weapons. Many of the actual weapon sounds are fine to me. There are a few where I can say I prefer the CoD1 or CoD2 equivalent, but most of the weapons sound good. But I do concur with many who say the weapons sound tiny. I think this has more to do with the volume of the weapon than anything else. I wouldn't mind seeing some kind of slight boost to the gun sounds especially (as it gives the player the illusion of wielding a powerful weapon). Grenades do seem weak in the volume department at times.
Sometimes player footsteps sound like a galloping horse, the gait of a 4-legged creature.
The integrated sound occlusion system is a brilliant idea, but I think the execution is held back by the inconsistency it brings at times. The directional sound is difficult to pickup periodically as you don't necessarily get an accurate assessment of where a sound or noise is coming from. Even your own movement (not the footsteps but the slight metallic sound that is mixed in) can appear to be coming from behind you, as I often stop and look over my shoulder because I think someone is following me. This can make the gameplay confusing and disorienting. It's hard to hear enemies approaching you, and gunfire in close proximity can be muffled in many instances.
The system needs to be tweaked and refined. The sound engineers should make this a top priority for the first patch.
Battle chatter does give away enemy positions which can be quite frustrating. Wasn't battle chatter in CoD4 only heard by teammates?
A turn the voice announcer off option might be nice to have as a standard server option, although I'm sure one could do this through a config.
► Misc:
Please get rid of the colored crosshairs, or allow server admins to turn it off and remain ranked (not sure what options will be able to be utilized while remaining ranked). I believe this was patched on the PC version of CoD4 due to the massive amount of complaints received due to the "wallhack effect" of being able to track enemies through smoke, bushes, etc.
This leads me to the enemy tags. I'm sure the dev team is aware of the issue now, but it is behaving as a quasi-hack itself, enabling players to know an enemies whereabouts through walls and other objects that completely hid the player model, but the enemy tag gives their exact location away.
Depth of field is overdone IMO. Pulling up the iron sights of a pistol nearly blurs the entire gun and I found this to be more of a nuisance than a subtle effect. I had to disable it through console to negate the problem entirely.
While attachments were interesting for CoD4 MW, I thoroughly dislike them in WaW. Telescopic sights for STG-44's and apertures for MP40's just feels odd, and I'm certain this will keep the majority of players from using iron sights at all, which is a shame IMO. I know this was brought back because of its popularity in CoD4, it just seems out of place in a game of this setting, even when these attachments actually existed at the time but most were not widely used. It's too bad the attachment system is so baked into the interface and the core of the ranking system to give us an option to play without the weapon attachments. I know some disagree with me but it would be advantageous to have the choice, although it's very unlikely given the way the game is setup. Maybe a consideration for any future title using the same system?
Molotov cocktails are a little weak and the radius a little small, but I hear the devs are improving this. It would be pleasing to see a fire linger for a few seconds after it is thrown as well.
Bouncing Betty's activate too fast. I've had opponents run up on me and suicide plant them, killing us both.
Options to turn off servers hints. Don't need to be told to reload, low ammo, no ammo, and press key to mantle.
I presume the retail game will have more video options as they are sorely missed.
Voice commands under the quick chat menu. CoD4 rendered these virtually worthless due to the pace of the game, but at least you could hear your voice saying the message. Now it just appears on the screen?
Clan tags. Please give consideration to extending the character limit by one or two and not limiting this feature to brackets only.
Round limits are too short for stock servers. I'm sure this is an oversight as the number can probably be attributed to the XBOX configuration, which has a much smaller player maximum. Yes, I know this can be changed but it is irritating when servers first go up and everyone has default settings applied.
The PC should be given specific attention when the needs of the platform differ from those of the consoles. This is the kind of example that makes an impression upon PC players that the PC is a virtual port from the consoles.
The leaderboard is a little bland to me. Some of the background colors clash with the small fonts which are a little rough looking in lower resolutions. My LCD is a native 1280 X 1024, but I always used 1024 X 768 in CoD4. If I use anything less than 1152 X 864 in WaW, then the font is not crisp, and I'm not sure if that's because the font is generally smaller in WaW or something else is responsible.
Suggestions:
▬ Fix spawning issues (critical)
▬ Optimize non-scoped bolt-action rifles (in progress)
▬ Repair sound occlusion inconsistencies (maybe add a weapon volume slider as well)
▬ Fix "galloping" footsteps
▬ Fix that character movement sound where it seems like it's coming from behind you
▬ Battle chatter should probably be heard by teammates only, otherwise giving away positions
▬ Rectify enemy tags seen through walls and other objects
▬ Turn red or colored crosshair off as stock for PC
▬ Depth of field overdone, but just add more video options for user
▬ Make damage radius larger on Molotov cocktails (in progess) and add lingering fire?
▬ Bouncing Betty's should have a short delay in being armed
▬ Let people add basic symbols (*$#!) to their profile name
▬ Extend clan tag character limit and don't restrict clan tags to bracket only
▬ Allow profile name to be different than ingame name?
▬ Keep polishing PC version with multiple patches to tailor PC needs
▬ Special attention to unranked servers for match compatibility and ease of use
▬ Make voice command audible
▬ Give S&D mode a players left counter for each side please
▬ Hardcore filter
▬ Make one HUGE, epic map for patch, DLC (map would probably be featured on many 24/7 servers)
I've had time to adequately take the beta in now. I realize that there will be some fixes in the first retail patch, but I will include everything I have experienced thus far. I shall start with some of the good qualities I have observed.
POSITIVES:
► Performance:
Runs pretty smooth on my machine. I only have a 7600GT, 2 GB RAM, Win XP, and AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 3800+ processor. Seems well optimized.
► Graphics:
Levels are full of detail and nice textures. Foliage and other entities really help flesh out the environment of the maps. Player models have enough variation in equipment and appearance to keep things interesting.
► Map design:
I think the levels were well planned. All 3 maps play S&D fairly well, a gametype that can sometimes challenge the layout.
I saw video today of Outskirts and I must say that map looks like it's going to be a blast. Not as corridor driven as most CoD4 maps. I think this might be symptomatic of some of the spawning problems with the maps being more open?
► FX and animation:
Quality job in this category. Water animation looks wonderful, explosions are believable and visually eye-catching. Tank rounds, grenades, bombs, etc. all make the experience a little more immersive. I've heard some complain about the model animations, but I think for the most part this department has been just fine. The gore coupled with flying body parts has been very well done. Adds an extra dimension to the battlefield and gives the game a visceral, bloody edge.
Playing S&D earlier, I had a chance to spectate some of the animation in action and I think they paid attention to some of the finer details. Death animations are very fluid and the overall movement, like running, going prone, and climbing ladders is more than satisfactory. Seems to me the total number of animations are up over previous CoD's, giving the models more variation and randomness. Commendable work on the dogs as they turned out very well.
In the end, everything from incoming artillery shells and player animation calling it in, to tanks rolling, fires burning, flags waving, and planting a bomb looks outstanding, and I personally was really pleased in this area of the game.
► Sound:
This aspect of the game has its high and lows, but I'll concentrate on the good qualities at this point, and what it does well.
The sound occlusion has huge potential. The battlefield is very alive with distant grenades going off and far away gun fire lathering the air. Shooting a gun and hearing another player shooting the same gun sounds quite different, which holds some truth when real life counterparts do the same. Overall, the sound occlusion really adds depth to the game and makes for an intriguing environment, but there is some problems to sort out as I'll try to get to in a bit. Battle chatter is fantastic and is everything from downright hilarious, to informative, to adding an extra layer of ambiance to the gameplay. I would agree, however, with those who say that it is giving away a player's position. I think battle chatter in CoD4 was only heard by members of the same team, so to keep a team member abreast of one's actions while not alarming enemy players.
Another very impressive aspect is the body piercing sound of some explosions. A bazooka smashing up against a wall, a grenade going off on a sandy beach, a tank round blasting the earth or another object all sound great. Bullets sound exceptional bouncing off material types like metal and wood. Certain surface sounds such as sand and the creaking of wood boards as you traverse them are a nice touch. The swishing disturbance of water is up to par too. Some of the gun sounds are excellent (firing and reloading), but I do have some issues that I will later elaborate on.
Ambient sounds are well done and so are other miscellaneous sounds such as barking dogs and artillery shelling. My evaluation is the sound execution exceeded my expectations in some areas, but needs tweaked in other instances.
► Features:
While there still may be more features in the retail version, I did appreciate some of the server options included in the beta. Having the ability to disable perks and killstreaks while still maintaining ranked status was vital. Major kudos to the development team there.
While I have seen some shrug their shoulders at the notion of a friends feature, I find it to be quite convenient and useful. Sometimes it's nice to have the option to use an integrated feature rather than a 3rd party application like Xfire all the time.
The extended stats encompassing nemesis and kill / death margin, streak, recon planes called etc. is a terrific addition.
Squad system. Good idea to implement into CoD. Makes pubs more tactical when playing with a few friends in a large server and will probably enrich competitive play where teams can split up and follow commands and waypoints.
► Misc:
Menus and fonts are cleaner looking and easier on the eyes than that of CoD4. Menu background flows better with the overall appearance. Just a quick observation on something as seemingly insignificant as a loadscreen, the artwork on the loading screens is the best of any CoD title to date.
Spectate mode is awesome. While waiting to respawn in S&D, I really enjoyed the option to watch team members in 3rd person or 1st person. The 3rd person brought me back to the days of MOHAA. It makes sitting and watching much more entertaining, and it's cool being able to rotate around on the center view axis. The player models actually putting their secondary or unused weapon on their back and reaching back to grab it is cool to see.
Tabun gas is sweet, trying to see through the brief vapor of gas emitted and if you happen to run through it the blurred, washed out saturation effect is nice.
Flares are useful at times and are a good addition to the arsenal.
The diversity in weaponry (and we don't have access to them all yet) at your disposal is a definite plus, some of the weapons are really fun to use.
Gameplay is solid, especially certain gametypes, and could be even better if spawn logic can be tweaked. I haven't messed around with tanks extensively but from what time I have spent with them they seem to be effective and add an interesting element to the gameplay.
NEGATIVES:
► Iron Sights:
I think some of the weapon's iron sights are too small, especially those of the rifles. The Mosin-Nagant sight is diminutive, needle thin, and the apex of the tip too short. Feel similar about the M1 Garand. Razor thin and hard to distinguish the iron sights from the background on a map like Makin.
► Balance & Recoil:
Some of this has been covered ad nauseum, but since this was my first personal experience with the weapons I would like to reinforce a few points. Non-scoped bolt-action rifles are definitely underpowered in the current PC beta stage. The damage in hardcore is where the rifles have a more even playing field but I'm happy to hear that some "tuning" will probably be done for the first retail patch so the normal mode of the game will make the non-scoped rifles a more viable option.
I was using the Mosin the other night, defending the bomb on Roundhouse and had two enemies at mid-range. I hit one enemy once, followed up by another immediate hit on the same player (obviously both shots were not very accurate but...) and he didn't drop. The third shot nailed the other foe and didn't kill him. Needless to say by then I was toast, but it was very frustrating to not get a kill out of that situation.
With all these automatics having apertures and telescopic sights, I don't think tweaking the non-scoped rifles is going to significantly tip the balance of power much, except bring them back to the rest of the field. When you have guns like the STG44 that have little recoil and powerful SMG's like the Thompson, a rifle enthusiast will still need to make use of his limited fire rate and make precise skill shots.
Some of the weapons do appear to have some healthy recoil though.
► Spawn Logic:
While the spawn system itself might be well and good, there is something fundamentally wrong with the spawning on these maps. Whether it's the spawn points themselves or something else entirely, this is one of my biggest gripes about the beta thus far. It ruins gametypes like TDM and CTF for me because instead of defending an area or charging a stronghold I am constantly doing circles to check and see if the opposing team has started spawning behind me or all around me.
When I played S&D for a little bit, it showed me that the core game was indeed pretty good and the gameplay was enjoyable once I felt part of a team, rather than scurrying around and feeling like every round was a frantic free-for-all battle.
The spawning in CoD4 arguably had its problems, but it didn't suffer from some of the problems the WaW beta apparently does. I don't know if a change was made to try and counter spawn killing (which I never found to be a big problem in CoD4 anyway) but something has to be done to alter its current state. Like I said, it blurs the meaning of many gametypes into playing like a free-for-all match.
► Sound:
Another hot-topic in WaW is the sound.
First off, the weapons. Many of the actual weapon sounds are fine to me. There are a few where I can say I prefer the CoD1 or CoD2 equivalent, but most of the weapons sound good. But I do concur with many who say the weapons sound tiny. I think this has more to do with the volume of the weapon than anything else. I wouldn't mind seeing some kind of slight boost to the gun sounds especially (as it gives the player the illusion of wielding a powerful weapon). Grenades do seem weak in the volume department at times.
Sometimes player footsteps sound like a galloping horse, the gait of a 4-legged creature.
The integrated sound occlusion system is a brilliant idea, but I think the execution is held back by the inconsistency it brings at times. The directional sound is difficult to pickup periodically as you don't necessarily get an accurate assessment of where a sound or noise is coming from. Even your own movement (not the footsteps but the slight metallic sound that is mixed in) can appear to be coming from behind you, as I often stop and look over my shoulder because I think someone is following me. This can make the gameplay confusing and disorienting. It's hard to hear enemies approaching you, and gunfire in close proximity can be muffled in many instances.
The system needs to be tweaked and refined. The sound engineers should make this a top priority for the first patch.
Battle chatter does give away enemy positions which can be quite frustrating. Wasn't battle chatter in CoD4 only heard by teammates?
A turn the voice announcer off option might be nice to have as a standard server option, although I'm sure one could do this through a config.
► Misc:
Please get rid of the colored crosshairs, or allow server admins to turn it off and remain ranked (not sure what options will be able to be utilized while remaining ranked). I believe this was patched on the PC version of CoD4 due to the massive amount of complaints received due to the "wallhack effect" of being able to track enemies through smoke, bushes, etc.
This leads me to the enemy tags. I'm sure the dev team is aware of the issue now, but it is behaving as a quasi-hack itself, enabling players to know an enemies whereabouts through walls and other objects that completely hid the player model, but the enemy tag gives their exact location away.
Depth of field is overdone IMO. Pulling up the iron sights of a pistol nearly blurs the entire gun and I found this to be more of a nuisance than a subtle effect. I had to disable it through console to negate the problem entirely.
While attachments were interesting for CoD4 MW, I thoroughly dislike them in WaW. Telescopic sights for STG-44's and apertures for MP40's just feels odd, and I'm certain this will keep the majority of players from using iron sights at all, which is a shame IMO. I know this was brought back because of its popularity in CoD4, it just seems out of place in a game of this setting, even when these attachments actually existed at the time but most were not widely used. It's too bad the attachment system is so baked into the interface and the core of the ranking system to give us an option to play without the weapon attachments. I know some disagree with me but it would be advantageous to have the choice, although it's very unlikely given the way the game is setup. Maybe a consideration for any future title using the same system?
Molotov cocktails are a little weak and the radius a little small, but I hear the devs are improving this. It would be pleasing to see a fire linger for a few seconds after it is thrown as well.
Bouncing Betty's activate too fast. I've had opponents run up on me and suicide plant them, killing us both.
Options to turn off servers hints. Don't need to be told to reload, low ammo, no ammo, and press key to mantle.
I presume the retail game will have more video options as they are sorely missed.
Voice commands under the quick chat menu. CoD4 rendered these virtually worthless due to the pace of the game, but at least you could hear your voice saying the message. Now it just appears on the screen?
Clan tags. Please give consideration to extending the character limit by one or two and not limiting this feature to brackets only.
Round limits are too short for stock servers. I'm sure this is an oversight as the number can probably be attributed to the XBOX configuration, which has a much smaller player maximum. Yes, I know this can be changed but it is irritating when servers first go up and everyone has default settings applied.
The PC should be given specific attention when the needs of the platform differ from those of the consoles. This is the kind of example that makes an impression upon PC players that the PC is a virtual port from the consoles.
The leaderboard is a little bland to me. Some of the background colors clash with the small fonts which are a little rough looking in lower resolutions. My LCD is a native 1280 X 1024, but I always used 1024 X 768 in CoD4. If I use anything less than 1152 X 864 in WaW, then the font is not crisp, and I'm not sure if that's because the font is generally smaller in WaW or something else is responsible.
Suggestions:
▬ Fix spawning issues (critical)
▬ Optimize non-scoped bolt-action rifles (in progress)
▬ Repair sound occlusion inconsistencies (maybe add a weapon volume slider as well)
▬ Fix "galloping" footsteps
▬ Fix that character movement sound where it seems like it's coming from behind you
▬ Battle chatter should probably be heard by teammates only, otherwise giving away positions
▬ Rectify enemy tags seen through walls and other objects
▬ Turn red or colored crosshair off as stock for PC
▬ Depth of field overdone, but just add more video options for user
▬ Make damage radius larger on Molotov cocktails (in progess) and add lingering fire?
▬ Bouncing Betty's should have a short delay in being armed
▬ Let people add basic symbols (*$#!) to their profile name
▬ Extend clan tag character limit and don't restrict clan tags to bracket only
▬ Allow profile name to be different than ingame name?
▬ Keep polishing PC version with multiple patches to tailor PC needs
▬ Special attention to unranked servers for match compatibility and ease of use
▬ Make voice command audible
▬ Give S&D mode a players left counter for each side please
▬ Hardcore filter
▬ Make one HUGE, epic map for patch, DLC (map would probably be featured on many 24/7 servers)